America's Grow-a-RowAmerica's Grow-a-Row

Mission Statement

Our mission is to help those in need through a volunteer effort of planting, picking, and delivering fresh produce, via a unique model that: heightens awareness of socio-economic issues, highlights the importance of local farms, and inspires voluntee... Read more

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Mission Statement

Our mission is to help those in need through a volunteer effort of planting, picking, and delivering fresh produce, via a unique model that: heightens awareness of socio-economic issues, highlights the importance of local farms, and inspires volunteers across many generations and skill sets.

Description

America’s Grow-a-Row (AGAR) is an organization that grows and gleans fresh, healthy produce that is then donated to food pantries, soup kitchens, crisis centers, and food banks all over the state of New Jersey. We operate our own garden where children, families, organizations and/or corporate groups plant seeds and seedlings. In addition, we glean excess produce from the farm where that garden is located, Peaceful Valley Orchards in Pittstown, NJ as well as other local farms in Hunterdon, Somerset, and Warren counties. Finally, we rescue "not quite retail perfect" produce from two local Shop-Rite grocery stores (1,200 pounds a week from each store). In 2009, we donated 317,000 pounds of fresh produce to people in need all over New Jersey. In 2010, we donated over 375,000 pounds of food. In August, 2010 we hit a milestone of donating 1,000,000 of fresh, healthy produce to those in need. As a result of purchasing our own 138-acre farm in 2010, we are confident that we can donate a million pounds of fresh food each year within the next 3 to 5 years. That’s a million pounds of produce or about 4 million servings of healthy food.